Why not hotels wrote:
The video for this was down and then somebody else said not in hotels because they don't know what is going on there. I don't get it - what is the reason for not tipping hotel maids? They have a dirty job with a low wage - why not tip them?
On that point, why not tip the gas station attendants in NJ?
"Dirty job with a low wage" does not justify a tip. Nobody every gave me a tip when I worked on a farm, washed dishes or filled sand bags in the Marine Corps. A tip is customary, in the US, in certain jobs such as waiters (they often don't make minimum wage) or say caddies (4-6 hours of highly personalized service and exhausting labor - basically a personal slave - is involved). I do realize that many people and travel guides consider hotel maid tips "customary" but it is an area where I take a stand because I just can't imagine tipping someone I never meet and how do I know some dirtbag doesn't steal it from the deserving maid?
Hotel maid work is not even close. If I had my own maid, I would give her tips for special work beyond the norm. But at hotels, 95% of the time I never meet or see who cleans my room, I don't even know what they cleaned and did not clean (hence my statement: "I don't even know what's going on"). Maids clean lots of rooms, sometimes disturb me and my family so they can stay on their schedule and the worst, don't clean my room until late in the day and I come back to a messed up room, and then have to be inconvenienced getting ready for dinner. The norm is that they make my bed, because I don't mess up my room if it's just me.
I have tipped maids where they have specifically gone out of their way to get me extra towels, freshen up the room at off hours, etc., however, I think solicitations for hotel maid tips which are very common these days, usually an envelope or some card on the desk. Generally if it fits my parameters for tipping overall which are:
-Service above and beyond
-Customary situations (waiters, bartenders, caddies)
-Want to get someone's attention, anticipating needing their help in the future (doorman, bartender again, valets I will see again)
-I also hate accumulating spare change in my pocket, so sometimes I tip to easily in take-out situations